


to the moon and back

by thunderylee



Category: KAT-TUN (Band), KinKi Kids
Genre: Canon Universe, Everybody's Gay!, Glossed-Over Sexytimes, Humor, M/M, established koutsu, member whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-29
Updated: 2007-06-29
Packaged: 2019-02-07 15:36:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12844218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: KAT-TUN goes to the moon.





	to the moon and back

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck.

“A mountain? How boring, how _cliché_ ,” Koki complained dramatically. “Why can’t we shoot a PV somewhere fun and exciting?”

“Ooh, ooh!” Junno said with his usual enthusiasm. “We should shoot it in the ocean!”

Kame snorted. “Yeah, so the fangirls can cream themselves while staring at us soaking wet for five minutes.”

“I’m okay with that,” Jin inputted.

“I’m not,” said Ueda. “I look like a drowned rat with wet hair.”

“And besides,” added Maru, “it’s impossible to beat-box underwater.”

“That settles that,” said Koki, sighing. “A mountain is so _lame_.”

Kame rolled his eyes. “Well, where do you think we should shoot it then?”

“I don’t know,” replied Koki. “As long as it’s not a boring ass mountain. We can shoot it on the moon for all I fucking care.”

The other five promptly burst into laughter; Koki was only annoyed for half a second before joining in. He hadn’t been _serious_ , after all.

~*~*~*~

Six faces stared back at Domoto Koichi with the exact same look, which was a mixture of disbelief and concern for their sempai’s wellbeing.

“What do you think?” Koichi asked brightly, having apparently sucked the pep out of Junno for the time being.

Predictably, Koki was the first to speak. “I think you’re fucking crazy.”

“Seconded,” agreed Maru, just as predictably.

Koichi grinned. “Then it’s settled. We leave the day after tomorrow.”

~*~*~*~

Junno was already at the location, curled up by the front door with his bag doubling as a pillow when Jin arrived. He didn’t see Koichi anywhere, or any film crews for that matter, and he was starting to think that this was all just a big joke when a voice behind him made him jump.

“It’s really creepy to stare at people while they sleep, you know.”

“I wasn’t staring at him, you bag of douche. I was _thinking_.”

Kame wrinkled up his nose. “Oh, so that’s what that smell was. Next time light a match.”

“Now, now, kids,” Koichi joked as he walked up, Tsuyoshi in tow. “Don’t make me turn this spaceship around.”

“What’s Tsuyoshi-sempai doing here?” Kame asked. “Don’t tell me he’s our costume designer.”

Koichi roared with laughter. “I don’t hate you guys _that_ much.”

Tsuyoshi only looked mildly offended as he lugged both his and Koichi’s luggage towards the wall, accidentally-on-purpose knocking a particularly large suitcase against Koichi’s knees.

“WOO!” shouted a voice from across the parking lot. “WE’RE GOING TO THE FUCKING MOON!”

Jin squinted as Koki appeared in his vision, assisted by Maru. “Is he drunk?”

“It’s six-thirty in the morning,” said Ueda, who had just plopped down next to Junno’s still-sleeping form. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Maru glanced apologetically at everyone as he more or less carried Koki towards them. “Seems that Koki-kun here is afraid of heights. Never would have guessed it after _Dream Boys_.”

“If you fall in space,” said Koki seriously with big eyes, “there is nothing to catch you.”

“You can’t fall in space, stupid,” said Jin. “There’s no gravity. You would just kind of hang out there until you picked up an orbit somewhere.”

Maru shrugged. “I gave him some Valium anyway. He should be out of it by the time we actually launch.”

Koichi clapped his hand to his forehead for what he presumed would not be the only time in the next week. “What are you doing with Valium?”

“I got it from Ueda,” Maru said quickly, pointing an accusing finger at Ueda.

Ueda rolled his eyes. “I got it from Jin.”

Jin paled. “I got it in America.”

Tsuyoshi snorted. “You could have gotten it from me.”

Koichi glared at all four of them. “No drugs on the spaceship. Give them up.”

Frowning, Maru produced an unmarked bottle and reluctantly handed it over to Koichi. “Fine, but you get to deal with him when he gets all freaked out.”

“Deal.” Koichi put his hands on his hips and Jin was strongly reminded of his mother. “Does anybody else have anything mind-altering? Do I need to search your bags?”

“No, Koichi-sempai,” six voices chorused, including a very sleepy Junno.

“Good. Now let’s get settled in so we can take off before the sun gets too high.”

“Koichi-sempai?” began Junno, rubbing his eyes. “Where’s the film crew?”

“You’re looking at them,” said Koichi cheerfully. “We’re doing it all ourselves.”

“And that’s why I’m here,” Tsuyoshi added. “Because Kochan has no artistic talent.”

Kame and Koki snickered, although Koki was playing ‘squish your head’ with an unknowing Ueda.

“I have artistic talent,” Koichi retorted haughtily. “It’s just not as _eccentric_ as yours.”

Jin stopped in his tracks as he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “There will be food, right?”

Kame smacked him in the back of the head as he followed the others onto the ship.

~*~*~*~

“Your hair is tickling my _nose_ ,” Kame bitched from his seat behind – or under, depending on how you chose to look at it – Ueda. “Can’t you put it up or something?”

Ueda flipped his hair in spite and smirked when he heard Kame wince, “That was my _eye_ , you fucker.”

“Calm down,” said Koichi. “We’re only going to be like this for a couple of minutes. It’s uncomfortable, I know.”

‘Uncomfortable’ was an understatement. The six seats were so cramped together that Jin felt they could have made a giant dog pile in the very back of the ship and it would have been more comfortable. Plus they were all at a ninety degree angle and staring at the back of the seat before them, or, in Kame’s instance, Ueda’s hair.

“I hope everyone showered,” Junno said brightly.

Koki snored contently as Maru struggled to fasten both of their safety belts.

Jin glared at Kame because he had the misfortune of sitting next to him.

“Good morning!” a familiar voice called over a loudspeaker. “This is your captain speaking. We’re going to have a great flight today. The weather is beautiful! There is five minutes to take off, another five to break through the atmosphere, and about two days to the moon. Kon!”

“Listen carefully,” said Kame, quietly enough so that only Jin could hear him. “If Yamapi is really flying this ship, I want you to find something to stab through my heart.”

“That wasn’t Pi-chan,” said Jin with the air of someone who knew what Yamapi’s voice sounded like in every and all situations. “But I can do that anyway, if you’d like.”

Koichi banged on the door above his head and the speaker turned on again. “Oops, I forgot. Now my stunning and slightly annoying co-pilot – who has absolutely no artistic talent but makes up for it by being so dang cute – will go through the safety procedures.”

Rolling his eyes, Koichi hung gracefully from the bar next to the door and glared at all six of them equally. “Head back, eyes front, arms at your sides. Don’t talk or move until we give you the clear. Absolutely no bodily functions – yes, Jin, including _that_ – and if you start to feel sick, hold it down.”

Ten eyes blinked at him; Koki stirred and snored loudly.

“Well,” said Koichi, unlatching the door to hoist himself upwards into the control room. “See you at zero gravity.”

Jin exchanged glances with Kame as the ship’s engine roared to life. They both nodded and extended a hand to grip tightly onto the other’s with the understanding that they would never speak of this again.

~*~*~*~

“Koki, wake up,” said Maru softly, floating between the seats to poke at Koki’s shoulder. “I can’t let you out of the harness until you’re awake.”

Junno did back flip after back flip just because he could. Ueda maneuvered himself until he was upside down and pretended to walk on the ceiling, much to the amusement of Jin, who was already red-faced from laughing at the way Kame’s hair stuck up.

The door to the control room unlatched. “Are we all alive?” Tsuyoshi’s chipper voice sailed through the opening, followed by his person.

Kame leaned towards Jin and pointed conspicuously at Tsuyoshi. “Does my hair look _that_ bad?”

Jin shook his head truthfully.

Koichi pushed Tsuyoshi out of the doorway, causing him to glide across the room and bounce off of the opposite wall. “Good, you guys haven’t killed each other yet.”

“It’s only been ten minutes,” pointed out Ueda.

Koki suddenly snapped his eyes open and grabbed at Maru’s neck. “Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod why do I feel _weightless_? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY WEIGHT?”

“We’re in space, genius,” said Ueda, slowly loosening Koki’s death grip on Maru; Maru looked slightly disappointed. “Take a deep breath and calm down.”

Koki inhaled sharply and took in his surroundings. “You guys are _flying_.”

“You can fly too!” said Junno happily, now performing a series of front flips with twists. “You don’t even get dizzy!”

“Now that you’re all awake and trapped in a spaceship with us,” said Tsuyoshi firmly, holding on to another strategically-placed bar, “we can tell you the real reason we brought you out here.”

“I KNEW IT!” screamed Jin. “You’re going to kill us. Or rape us. WAIT. First you’re going to kill us, _then_ you’re going to rape us!”

Koichi made a face. “If those were our plans, it certainly wouldn’t be in that order.”

Jin clutched onto the nearest person, who happened to be Maru. “Stay away from my ass cherry, you sick fuck!”

Kame laughed in a strangled fashion. “Right, ’cause Yamapi is just your _friend_.”

“I am not fucking Yamapi,” said Jin with narrowed eyes. “And even if I was, I wouldn’t be his uke.”

“I have to agree with that,” said Ueda. “I know girls who are more seme than Yamashita.”

“SHUT UP!” yelled Tsuyoshi.

Jin paused with his mouth open and stared at Tsuyoshi with big eyes. Maru took advantage of the situation and escaped from Jin’s hold, settling towards the other side of the room where Junno was stopped mid-flip in hopes that no one would be able to reach him there. Both Ueda and Kame’s eyebrows disappeared into their hairline, and Koki looked like he was about to cry.

Koichi visibly shivered and looked very proud.

“We are doing you a _favor_ , you ungrateful brats.” If Koichi was Jin’s mom, Tsuyoshi was definitely his father; somehow the thought made him smile fondly. “If Johnny-sama knew that you weren’t getting along – _again_ – he would break you up and kick Jin out.”

“Why me?” Jin asked with his famous pout.

“Because you’re the reason we weren’t getting along the first time, dumbass,” hissed Ueda. “You honestly think you went to America because you _wanted_ to? Did you forget how you and Kame were ready to kill each other before you left?”

“What’s this have to do with us, anyway?” Maru asked bitterly. “It’s Jin and Kame who fight all the time. Why can’t you have just brought them up here by themselves?”

“Whose ship is this?” asked Junno. “It’s awesome.”

“It’s mine,” said Koichi. “And thank you.”

“ _Ours_ ,” Tsuyoshi corrected him. “We had some time to waste a couple years ago, so we both went to space school. Secretly, of course. When we got our pilot’s licenses, we bought this ship to celebrate. Douzo!”

“You guys really do have more money than you know what to do with,” said Kame, shaking his head in disbelief.

“So will you, if you don’t fuck this up,” said Koichi knowingly. “I don’t think I need to remind you what your ratings were when Jin was gone.”

Six heads hung in shame, including Jin’s now that he knew the truth.

“Think of the next four days as a reality show,” said Tsuyoshi. “You’re stuck in an enclosed space with your bandmates – how can you survive? You obviously can’t leave. You will just have to _deal_ and learn to tolerate and maybe even like each other.”

“I like everyone,” said Junno. “I win!”

Not to be outdone, Jin searched his brain for something he liked about Kame. “Kame is nice when he’s asleep.”

Kame played along. “I like Jin’s… hair color.”

Jin grinned. “Really? I wanted to go red again but while I was in America I met this guy who was a hairdresser and he told me that -”

“You know, I’m really fucking tired of hearing about America,” snapped Kame. “While you got a six-month vacation, the rest of us were busting our asses working _without you_.”

“I was working hard!” said Jin defensively. “I went to class and had to make friends and live by myself and be surrounded by people who only spoke _English_ and -”

Kame cut him off. “Whatever, Akanishi, you went out, got drunk, and had random white chicks come in your room, you stupid shit.”

“Oh, I’m Akanishi now?” Jin glared. Hard. “Okay, _Kamenashi_ , before I left, I was constantly rehearsing, training, performing, or – in the rare cases – sleeping. Do you mean to tell me that you wouldn’t take the opportunity to have a little fun if you had the chance?”

“I am _serious_ about my _career_ ,” said Kame strongly. “I knew going in that it was going to be hard work and it’s really unfair that I was thrown into a group with someone who doesn’t value his fame as something earned instead of something expected.”

Jin got into Kame’s face. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you are bringing us all down, you insufferable snob!”

“If I’m bringing you down, why did you suck so badly while I was gone?”

“We didn’t _suck_ ,” spoke up Ueda defiantly. “We just lost our fanbase that was solely dedicated to your sluttiness.”

Jin gaped at him. “You’re on his side?”

“When it comes to you being an insufferable snob, yes.” Ueda floated between Jin and Kame, slowly separating them. “But in _your_ defense, Kame is just as bad.”

“ _What_?” Kame turned his glare towards Ueda. “I am not nearly as bad as _him_. I just want what’s best for our group, which is not Jin strutting around like he’s God’s gift to every man, woman, and underage girl on Earth. I actually care what other people think of me.”

“Of _you_ , yes,” Ueda agreed. “Not of all of us as a group.”

Kame stopped to ponder that. “Whatever, I’m nowhere near as bad as him.”

“You’re both incurable divas,” said Maru irritably. “If you both weren’t so fucking hot, you’d be washed-up has-beens by now.”

“Don’t fuel them, Yuichi,” warned Ueda. “They both know damn well how attractive they are.”

“Bullshit,” said Kame. “Even if our group didn’t work out, I am an amazing actor. I got a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award for _Gokusen 2_ -”

“Which I was in with you, you ass,” Jin interrupted.

“You hate acting!” Kame exploded, pointing at Jin’s chest. “You told Pi that you wish you could just sing and swing your hips and not have to worry about doramas or interviews or anything involving anymore effort than thrusting your crotch at a camera.”

“You said that?” said Junno with wide eyes.

“It’s not my fault I’m good at everything.” Jin shrugged. “I think you’re just jealous because you have to work hard whereas I have natural talent.”

Maru whistled and stood in front of Koki to shield him from whatever body parts might fly in their direction. Ueda ducked out from between the fired-up pair and joined Junno in his happy corner before he became an innocent bystander.

Koichi and Tsuyoshi stood by with their arms crossed in identical poses, watching silently and looking entirely too amused.

“If I wasn’t so worried about you making me look bad with a giant bruise on your face in this PV, I would punch you,” Kame said evenly.

Jin scoffed. “Even with a busted-up face, I would _still_ be hotter than you.”

Kame’s fist flew towards Jin, but the weightlessness caused his perception to be off and he flipped around in a circle instead of making contact. Jin laughed hysterically and shoved Kame just so, causing him to do a series of forward rolls towards Ueda and Junno, who didn’t move out of the way fast enough and found themselves squished against the wall by an upside-down Kame.

“Strike!” Jin shouted in English.

Kame glared murderously, which would have ordinarily wiped the grin off of Jin’s face except that Kame’s hair was sticking straight out in every single direction, making him look oddly enough like a Japanese Medusa. Junno helpfully turned Kame upright and gave him a gentle push out of his personal space.

“Are you done?” Koichi asked condescendingly, as though he were speaking to a pair of unruly children.

“Yes,” Jin and Kame muttered. “For now,” Kame added under his breath.

“Good.” Koichi floated towards the door opposite the control room and yanked it open with a flourish. “Now you can see the rest of the ship.”

~*~*~*~

“There are four sleeping areas,” Koichi said in his tour guide voice, leading his kouhais down a long corridor. “Each room has a pair of cots with straps that will keep you from floating around while you sleep. Koki and Yuichi will be in this room -”

“Yosh!” Koki and Maru replied in unison with a high-five.

” – Tatsuya and Junno will be in this one -”

“Wait,” said Ueda quickly. “That leaves Jin and Kame together. Koichi-sempai, are you sure that’s a good -?”

“The rooms are soundproof,” Koichi said with a smirk. “There’s nothing breakable in them, and it would take more than the strength of all eight of us to so much as dent these walls. Neither Tsuyoshi nor I care what happens behind these doors. We trust that you will all work out your problems by the time we return to Earth.”

Junno bit his lip and looked over at Ueda. “Do we have a problem, Tatchan?”

“Not to my knowledge,” replied Ueda, shrugging. “I’m just glad I don’t have to listen to Koki’s snoring again.”

“I could sleep through several world wars,” said Maru. “It won’t bother me.”

Jin and Kame said nothing, choosing to eye each other angrily instead.

Koichi smiled in a way that made the others think that he knew a private joke at their expense. “I’ll leave you all to settle in. We’ll congregate back in the main room in an hour. Try not to kill each other.”

With that, he was gone. Now alone, the six members of KAT-TUN stared at each other with incredulity at the whole situation.

Ueda spoke first, always the leader. “I’m going to unpack,” he said decidedly, heaving the handle on his and Junno’s door open and disappearing with his luggage. Junno followed wordlessly, shutting the door behind him.

“Let’s be loud and annoying in our room,” Koki suggested to Maru, who nodded eagerly and followed suit.

Jin and Kame continued glaring. After awhile, Jin lost interest and flung open the door, humming the tune to ‘Will Be All Right’. A latching sound signified that Kame was right behind him.

“I claim the cot by the window!” Jin squealed happily, bouncing towards the bed in question. He raised himself towards said window and plastered his face to it, squinting through the darkness to see the wonders of outer space. “Hey, where are all the planets and stars?”

“The shade is down, moron,” Kame muttered from the closet area, trying to shove his clothes into the drawers before they floated away.

Jin made a face and began feeling around for a catch. “I don’t know how to get it open. I want to see what’s outside.” He pouted pitifully.

Sighing, Kame abandoned his suitcase and joined Jin at the window. He too felt around for something that would open the shade, smirking when he found a button over to the side. Without a word to Jin, he pushed it and couldn’t help but smile as Jin made an excited noise, his nose returning to the window as the shade started to rise, letting in the brilliant sunlight –

In one swift motion, Kame shoved Jin away from the window and heaved him against the wall, covering Jin’s eyes as he squinted his own shut and desperately felt around for that button.

“Kame, what the hell -”

Miraculously, Kame found the button and smacked it again, continuing to pin Jin to the wall and keep their eyes closed until the shade had secured completely. “I’m sorry,” he said breathlessly. “I wasn’t thinking.”

He started to push away from Jin, but Jin grabbed him by the arms. “What are you talking about? And can I open my eyes now?”

A chuckle joined Kame’s relieved exhale. “Yes, it’s okay. You’re not going to be blinded by the sun.”

Jin’s eyes popped open as he let go of Kame and stared at the closed shade. “The sun can hurt my eyes up here?”

Nodding, Kame turned back to his suitcase. “The moon is close to the sun this time of year, so in a way we’re flying directly towards it. We don’t have the ozone to protect us, either. I’m surprised Koichi-sempai didn’t mention it.”

“He probably didn’t think any of us would be stupid enough to open the shades,” Jin mumbled shamefully.

“He should have locked them,” Kame said with a hint of anger. “None of us have ever been to space school. We don’t know these things. You could have seriously damaged your eyes.”

“But I didn’t.” Jin put a hand on Kame’s shoulder to calm him down. “Thanks to you.”

Kame spun around and narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, well maybe you should remember that the next time you accuse me of not giving a shit about anyone but myself.”

“Maybe you should tell that to Tatchan,” Jin shot back. “He was the one who said it, not me.”

Kame paused. Without another word, he spun on his heel, which was a lot less graceful in zero gravity, and made a beeline for Ueda and Junno’s door. Not bothering to knock, he flung it open and stared in awe at his two bandmates staring out the window.

“What are you doing?” he exclaimed frantically, rushing to try and pull them away. “You’ll blind yourselves!”

“Calm your roll, Kame,” said Ueda calmly, his lips turning upwards into a smile as he saw something soar by outside. “There’s heavy UV tint on these. And do you mind knocking next time? Taguchi and I could have been _indisposed_.”

“Oh, please,” Kame said sarcastically, trying to ignore the part of him that felt really, really stupid. “If anybody is hooking up in this group, it’s certainly not you two. Especially since you call him ‘Taguchi’.”

“What makes you so sure?” Ueda replied in his ‘this isn’t really true but I’m going to pretend it is just to see if you will buy it, you gullible schmuck’ voice. “Maybe Taguchi likes being referred to by his surname. I bet he’s kinky like that.”

Junno winked, playing along. “You and Jin can’t have all the fun, you know.”

“Can we go five minutes without reliving that awful experience?” Jin snapped from the doorway, making a face. “It’s a little hard to forget about something when everyone is constantly bringing it up.”

“That was three years ago,” Kame said, ignoring how Jin’s words affected him, even after all this time. “We were stupid kids and we’re both over it. We’ve moved on for the sake of our _group_.”

“For the sake of our group,” Ueda repeated leisurely. “Think about that for a minute. Let it marinate nice and slow. As you leave our room.”

Kame shoved past Jin, who was staring at Ueda and Junno in awe. “You two aren’t really…”

Ueda grabbed Junno around the waist and nuzzled his neck, making Junno giggle.

Jin wrinkled his nose and floated away.

After the door latched shut, Ueda released Junno and burst into laughter. “They are so oblivious,” he mused out loud, returning to the window.

Junno snuck a glance at an unsuspecting Ueda before watching the colorful array of lights fly past them once more. “They’re not the only ones.”

~*~*~*~

“DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND IT? SAKI WO ITTA HAZU GA, OITEKIBORI IMA GA, SUBETE JA NAI…”

Koki closed his eyes thoughtfully as Maru sang at the top of his lungs. “Your voice has gotten better,” he said. “You should really be getting more solos.”

“If Jin and Kame keep up their bullshit, I just might,” replied Maru happily, jumping from his cot to the ceiling and back again. “You’re not so bad yourself, Koki-kun. If KAT-TUN breaks up, maybe we could make it as a duo.”

“Maybe.” Koki tightened his grip on both straps to keep from levitating off of his cot. “What would we call ourselves?”

“NakaNaka!” Maru shouted ecstatically. “You know, for your surname and mine -”

“You’ve really thought this out, haven’t you?” Koki smirked amusedly.

Maru stilled and regarded Koki seriously from the ceiling. “There was a point after Jin left when I thought we were really going to break up. These are our futures too. Someone has to look out for us.”

“Be that as it may, I think Tsuyoshi-sempai is right.” Koki opened his eyes and fixed them on Maru. “What we need to do is try and keep our group together. It’s not just about Jin and Kame, although that’s the biggest problem we’re facing right now.”

“Do you have a problem with me?” Maru asked in a small voice, making his way to Koki’s side. “You can tell me, you know. We can work it out like adults instead of fighting like little kids.”

“I don’t have a problem with you, Yuichi.” Koki sighed. “I don’t have a problem with anyone, really. I just think we’re all at ends with each other lately, and I don’t know why.”

“My problem is mainly with Jin and Kame and how they both walk around like they’re better than us.” Maru frowned. “I’m sure they could both make it solo if they had to. And Kame’s right, even if he wasn’t performing, he’d get acting jobs. But for the time being, they’re stuck with us. We are all one giant, dysfunctional family.”

Koki made a face. “That is a very disturbing thought, and we’re going to pretend you never said that.” He turned to look at Maru. “You don’t really believe that they’re better than us, do you?”

“Um…” Maru glanced away, suddenly shameful. “They are better liked than us. And you can’t deny that they both have amazing voices.”

He winced as Koki smacked him in the back of the head. “Don’t say things like that! We are all talented in our own ways, and that is why Koichi-sempai put us together all those years ago. He is not a careless man; he wouldn’t have made such an investment in us if he didn’t think it was the right choice.”

Maru felt relieved by those words. He was about to speak again, to say something that he probably shouldn’t say, but he was interrupted by Koichi’s voice on the loudspeaker; he wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or annoyed.

“Lunchtime, kids. Last one to the main room has to take out the trash!”

Koki rolled his eyes. “He thinks he’s funny.”

~*~*~*~

“You’re… serious.” Jin regarded the pill in his hand like it had caused him great harm.

“What did you expect, a four course meal?” Tsuyoshi replied with a grin. “We can’t prepare food in space. One of these pills contains the nutrients and vitamins that would be in any bento -”

“I’m going to die up here,” Jin said flatly. “I’m going to die, and the whole world will be sad. My funeral will be a three-hour long concert in honor of my beautiful soul, and the five of you will sing a ballad version of ‘Pinky’ in memory of your best friend Akanishi Jin.”

Fourteen eyes blinked at him. Ueda burst out laughing. Kame seethed.

Tsuyoshi ignored him. “Itadakimasu!” he said bemusedly, popping the pill into his mouth and swallowing it whole.

Maru eyed his pill before following suit. “Well, that was anticlimatic. I feel like I wasted my energy swimming down the hall for this.”

“Nonsense,” said Koichi shortly, rubbing his stomach as though the pill had magically expanded it. “We’re going to spend some quality time together today. Hang out and talk and… stuff.”

“I’m tired, Koichi-sempai,” whined Jin. “We have all week to talk.”

Koichi sighed. “Fine, you’ll go first. I’m going to talk to each of you individually while Tsuyo starts a game of some sort.”

“A game?” This was news to Tsuyoshi. “You didn’t say anything about any games.”

“Make something up,” Koichi hissed. “Come on, Jin.”

“If I don’t come back alive,” Jin whispered to Ueda, “Kame can have my solos. But don’t tell him I said that until it’s certain that I’m dead. Like, no doki-doki.” He patted his heart for effect.

“What do I get?” Ueda asked, eyes sparkling mischievously.

Jin frowned in thought. “You can have my guitar.”

Ueda’s eyes lit up. “Okay, deal.”

Jin followed Koichi into the control room and stared in awe at the view into outer space. “Can you… I mean, Koichi-sempai, may I please enjoy the scenery for a moment before we begin?”

“Since you asked so nicely, you may,” Koichi replied, settling down backwards on one of the seats and looking out into the nothingness himself. “It’s something else, ne?”

“It’s beautiful,” Jin breathed, floating towards the full-length windows and pressing his nose to the glass, figuring Koichi would yell at him for it; surprisingly, he didn’t. “I wanted to look earlier, but Kame pushed me away from our window and screamed something about blinding sunlight.”

Koichi chuckled softly. “Kazuya does a lot of things that you don’t understand, doesn’t he?”

“It’s not that – I mean, I _understand_ , but… well, actually, yes,” Jin completed his thought. “I don’t understand what he does sometimes. Or why he does them.”

“Would you rather he left you alone?”

Jin started, turning away from the window to give Koichi an ‘are you out of your mind?’ look. “Of course not. That would be awkward.”

“What do you want him to do?”

“I want him to -” _forgive me_ “- act like he did four years ago, before we -” Jin stopped abruptly, his cheeks tinting. “I mean, we got into this fight, ne, and it was really stupid but really important at the same time, and, well, that was it.”

“I see,” Koichi said slowly. “How long did this ‘fight’ last?”

“One year exactly,” Jin grumbled.

“How good was it?”

Jin blinked. He had always had a hard time trying to follow analogical conversations, or whatever this was. “Um, well, neither he nor I were particularly experienced in fighting, so it was kind of bad at first until we figured stuff out. Once we did, though, we beat the shit out of each other constantly. Twice a day, sometimes. And then it looked like we were going to debut, so I told him we shouldn’t fight anymore. It wouldn’t look good if anyone found out we’d been fighting, you know.”

“I know.” Koichi nodded. “Go on.”

“So we didn’t debut, obviously, but we still didn’t fight. We had stopped fighting completely. We were so busy doing other stuff that it didn’t really matter, you know. We rehearsed and performed in our concerts and it was no big deal. We even did a dorama together. We weren’t best friends anymore, but we weren’t enemies like…”

“Like you are now,” Koichi finished for him. “When did it change?”

“After we debuted for real,” Jin said sadly. “It was supposed to be the best time of my life, but every time I would start to get happy about it, he would say or do something to bring me down. He brought everyone down. He was excited in the interviews and to you guys, but when it was just the six of us, he said very nasty things to me.”

“Do you think that had anything to do with you calling off the fight?”

Jin stared. “No? I don’t know? He agreed with me at the time. He said it wouldn’t be good for us to keep fighting when both of our hearts weren’t into it.”

Koichi found a new respect for his willpower as it kept him from smacking his hand to his forehead for the second time today. “Okay, Jin, enough about Kazuya. What about Tatsuya? He hasn’t been acting like a leader lately, has he?”

“Did you call me in here to get dirt on everyone else?” Jin’s eyes lit up. “I haven’t been back long enough to know anything really juicy. They all kind of walk around carefully like I’m going to up and leave again or something. I just wanted to study English, Koichi-sempai, I swear. I had fun and learned a lot and now I’m ready to come back to the group and work hard. I think they all resent me because I got a second chance, even though it would have been pointless to continue the group without me.”

Koichi rubbed his eyes. “Jin, let me explain something to you. Six years ago, I was entrusted by Johnny-sama himself to hand-pick six juniors and turn them into a successful group. Many people, including my partner, did not understand why I picked the six I did; looking at you all now, I do not regret my decisions. However, I feel responsible for not only your group, but each of you individually. When you fail, I fail. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Koichi-sempai.” Jin hung his head as though he were getting scolded. “I will make a better effort to get along with my bandmates. I’m sorry I’ve let you down.”

“You haven’t,” said Koichi, letting the unspoken “yet” hang in the air.

~*~*~*~

“Tag, you’re it!” Jin shouted as he breast-stroked into the main room and rammed head-first into Kame’s shoulder. “Koichi-sempai wants you next. Don’t worry, he’s very gentle.”

Kame made a face and disappeared through the door to the control room.

Maru raised an eyebrow at Jin. “What’s that all about anyway?”

Jin pretended to zip his lips. “You’ll find out when you go in there. What game are we playing?”

“Memory,” said Junno excitedly. “One of us starts out something like, ‘I’m going on a picnic, and in my picnic basket is a sandwich.’ Then the next person repeats the line and adds his own item. It can be anything you want, it doesn’t even have to make sense. You just have to remember what everyone else said because if you can’t, you’re eliminated.”

“Okay!” Jin took Kame’s place in the mid-air circle. “I can do that.”

“Tsuyoshi-sempai, can we start over?” asked Ueda. “Taguchi confused me with his rhetorical picnic basket.”

“Sure,” said Tsuyoshi. “I’m going to the moon, and on my spaceship I have secured a blanket.”

Koki, who was to Tsuyoshi’s left, scrunched his face up in thought before speaking. “I’m going to the moon, and on my spaceship I have secured a blanket and a microphone.”

“I’m going to the moon!” squealed Junno. “And on my spaceship I have secured a blanket, a microphone, and a bento.”

“I think someone’s hungry,” said Ueda playfully. “I’m going to the moon, and on my spaceship I have secured a blanket, a microphone, a bento, and a bandana.”

“I’m going to the moon,” said Maru, “and on my spaceship I have secured a blanket, a microphone, a bento, a bandana, and a thousand screaming fans.”

Jin giggled. “My turn? Okay. I’m going to the moon, and on my spaceship I have stor- no, _secured_ a… a blanket, a microphone, a bento, a bandana, a thousand screaming fans, and a turtle.”

Maru snorted. “Kame’s already here.”

“A _real_ turtle,” Jin insisted. “Not Kame _nashi_.”

“Sure,” said Maru with a wink.

“I’m going to the moon,” said Tsuyoshi, “and on my spaceship I have secured a blanket, a microphone, a bento, a bandana, a thousand screaming fans, a turtle, and Hard Gay’s sunglasses.”

Koki erupted into manly giggles and promptly forgot what everyone else was taking to the moon. “I lose!” he said happily.

Junno, Ueda, and Maru completed their turns without any flaws, but Jin found himself hard pressed to remember the many items that had accumulated so far. “… a turtle, Hard Gay’s sunglasses, glow-in-the-dark juggling balls, a pair of juniors to clean up after us, Koki’s ‘Pinky’ wig, and… um..” Jin frowned in thought. “… my best friends.”

Tsuyoshi smiled solemnly. “Who are your best friends?”

“You guys.” Jin looked down towards the floor, which was a good two feet from where he was hovering. “All of you.”

“Even me?”

Jin’s head darted up to look at Kame, who had silently left the control room and was now looking at him expectantly. He was about to say something nasty until he remembered his conversation with Koichi. “Yes,” he said strongly. “Even you.”

Kame managed a smile, but it looked forced. “Thanks. I wish I could say the same about you.” He floated down the hallway, slamming a door in the distance.

“Want to switch rooms?” Junno offered helpfully. “He’ll probably yell at me too, but I won’t pay any attention to it.”

“No switching rooms,” said Koichi harshly, his eyes fixing on Jin, looking highly exasperated after his conversation with Kame. “He can’t lock you out and there’s nowhere else to sleep unless you want to bump into everything all night.”

“I’m tired,” Jin said again, yawning for effect. “I don’t feel like fighting with him.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” said Ueda, starting to make his way out of the room.

“Tatsuya, you’re next,” said Koichi in a warning tone that implied no arguing.

Ueda stopped in his tracks and gave Jin a look that plainly said ‘I tried’ before following Koichi through the closest door.

“I don’t know about you guys,” Tsuyoshi said suddenly, “but I feel like an old man who needs a nap. I’m sure you can entertain yourselves while I catch a few winks, ne?”

Four heads nodded in affirmation. Tsuyoshi nodded as well and retreated to the room he shared with Koichi.

Koki, Maru, and Junno stared at Jin. “What?” he said defensively. “Why are you all looking at me?”

“What did Koichi-sempai _say_ to you?” Koki asked in something like awe. “You haven’t spoken that nicely to Kame in years.”

Jin shrugged. “I told him I would try harder to get along with him, that’s all.”

“But you lied,” pointed out Junno. “You don’t think Kame is your best friend, not at all. You may as well have slapped him in the face.”

“What am I supposed to say?” Jin hissed irritably. “There isn’t a handbook out there called ‘Jin is from Mars, Kame is from Bermuda’ ne. He is like an entirely different species lately. I don’t know what to say to him to make him forgive me.”

“Forgive you for what?” Maru asked curiously. “Did you do something to him?”

Jin sighed. “It’s really our business, no offense.”

“Yeah, because you’re doing a real good job dealing with it on your own,” said Koki sarcastically. “And now that we’ve all been drug into it as well, you can at least give us the decency of knowing why we’re going to the fucking _moon_ because of you.”

“Look, if he wants to tell you, it’s fine with me,” Jin said quickly. “But it’s his business too. I respect him enough not to go airing his dirty laundry, even if it’s also mine.”

“Ooh, dirty laundry.” Maru rolled his eyes. “Jin. Seriously? My _mother_ knows that you two used to hump. It’s really not that big of a secret.”

“But that was years ago,” said Junno logically. “They’ve just started feuding _again_ recently, a little while after Jin came back from America. Something else had to have happened.”

“Well, if any of you figure it out, let me know ne?” Jin propelled himself towards the hallway. “He sure as fuck isn’t telling me anything.”

~*~*~*~

Kame’s face was glued to the window when Jin cautiously crept into their room. He didn’t turn around or even acknowledge his presence, only continuing to gaze as Jin strapped himself into the cot beneath him and snuggled up with the attached pillow.

The next thing he knew, a blanket was being tied around him. “Kazu…” he began sleepily.

“Shh,” said Kame quietly. “I didn’t mean to wake you up. The oxygen makes it kind of chilly in here after awhile. I thought you might need a cover.”

“Thanks,” mumbled Jin. “Kazuya…”

Kame waited about thirty seconds for Jin to finish his statement. Figuring he fell asleep, he went back to the window and continued to watch in fascination as the outside world seemed to never end.

“… Why are you so mean to me?”

“Because I love you, you big idiot,” Kame said softly, knowing that Jin was unconscious enough to not remember it. “I can’t stand to watch you throw your life away.”

“… I’ll try harder. I told Koichi-sempai I would. Please be good to me.”

Kame bit his lip. Damn Jin and his childish pleas. One of these days, he would have to grow up like everyone else. Like Kame had to. Like they all had to.

Kame wondered when he would get his chance to take a break.

~*~*~*~

“Yuichi-kun, do you know why you’re here?”

Maru stared at Koichi with big eyes. “Because we all need to join forces to get Jin and Kame to make up?”

Koichi shook his head. “Don’t worry about things that don’t concern you. Jin and Kazuya will not be leaving the group, so whatever is going on with them doesn’t matter.”

“Okay.” Maru briefly felt like he was being brainwashed. “No, Koichi-sempai, I don’t know why I’m here.”

“Anything you want to talk about?” Koichi asked, prodding. “Any conflicts with other KAT-TUN members?”

Maru shook his head. “Everyone treats me very well. I have no complaints.”

Koichi paused, tapping his fingers on the arms of the captain’s chair. “What if I told you that someone had a complaint with you?”

“What? Who?” Maru jumped out of his chair, floating aimlessly towards the window. “Was it Koki?”

“Why do you think it was Koki?” Koichi grinned.

Maru frowned. “You tricked me.”

“You allowed yourself to be tricked. What’s going on with Koki?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” Maru said a little too forcibly. “I mean, Koki’s my best friend. We’re a lot alike. We take care of each other.”

“You mean you take care of him.” Koichi’s grin faded into a knowing smile. “Does he ever take care of you? Stand up for you in an argument?”

Maru thought hard. “He doesn’t need to,” he said simply. “I can take care of myself.”

“And so can he.”

“Yes, he can,” Maru agreed. “He is a very strong man, very dedicated in everything he does. He also likes to have fun and I think out of all of us, he’s the only one who still has as much fun as we did when we were juniors.”

“Do you admire him?”

“Very much so.” Maru nodded. “He’s younger than me, but in ways it feels like he’s older. He’s been in more dramas, he gets more screen time because he raps in like every song, he stands out as the only one in JE with a shaved head…”

“It almost sounds like you’re jealous.”

Maru waved his hands dismissively. “I’m not, I swear. We’re not Jin and Kame. I am glad that Koki is so successful and maybe even a little proud of him. We should all be proud, you know, because if it wasn’t for all of us as a unit, none of us would be as successful as we are. I’d like to think that we all did it together.”

Koichi smiled genuinely. “That is the best thing I’ve heard all day. Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

“Yeah,” said Maru. “Thank you, Koichi-sempai. It is because of you that we are all here, in every sense of the word. I hope that whatever you’re plotting works out.”

“Me too.”

~*~*~*~

“I feel like someone has been messing with my thoughts,” said Ueda trivially, leaning against Junno not because he was tired but because they had ended up in the same corner of the room and neither felt the need to move. “Did Koichi-sempai speak cryptically to you guys, too?”

Maru and Koki nodded; Ueda could feel Junno’s nod against his back.

“I think…” Koki began, swallowing slowly before proceeding. “I think that it’s not only Jin and Kame who are contributing to the falling apart of our group. I think that we should all be completely honest towards each other, starting right now.”

“Koki, I’m sorry I keep trying to take care of you,” Maru blurted out. “I always wanted a little brother growing up and even though I don’t see you that way, maybe you feel like I treat you like one.”

Koki stared at him blankly. “I don’t feel that way at all. What on earth would put that in your head?”

“Nice choice of words,” Ueda muttered.

Koki smiled at Maru. “I don’t mind that you take care of me. Someone has to. I know that I get a little overwhelmed sometimes. And it’s okay if you think of me as a little brother, I don’t mind.”

“I don’t,” Maru insisted. “You’re my equal, really.”

“This is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever witnessed,” Junno whispered into Ueda’s ear.

Ueda grunted his agreement.

“I wonder when he’s going to confess,” Junno continued, keeping his voice quiet enough for only Ueda to hear him.

Ueda smirked. “Aren’t you an observant one.”

“I notice a lot of things, Tatchan,” Junno said in a low voice. “Even things that people don’t want me to see.”

~*~*~*~

Koichi stood in front of the room in his shiny silver spacesuit with ‘DoKo’ embroidered in sparkly letters on the helmet, his hands firmly on his hips. “Any questions?” his voice echoed in the ears of the others.

Six hands shot up in the air. Koichi rolled his eyes. “I’ve gone through this _five times_. Breathe evenly, stay close to the ship, and don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want all of us to hear.”

“What if I get sucked into an orbit and fly away?” Jin asked seriously, clinging to Ueda as though the older man would keep them grounded.

“We are _on the moon_ ,” Koichi said exasperatedly. “It has enough gravity to keep you close to the surface. You are not going to fly anywhere.”

Junno waved his hand from side to side. “How are we supposed to dance in these things?”

“There’s no dancing in this PV,” Koichi said simply.

Twelve eyes widened and six mouths gaped from inside their respective bubble-like space helmets.

“Trust me,” Koichi said, flashing his most winning smile.

“Do we even know what song this PV is for?” Kame asked skeptically. “Is it one we’ve already released?”

Koichi sighed audibly. “It’s a surprise. Now if there are no more questions -”

“Koichi-sempai!” six voices shouted in unison.

“Stop screaming,” Tsuyoshi’s voice grumbled, transmitted from the control room. “You’re all hurting my damn ears. _Relax_ , kouhais. If you are in Kochan’s care, you have nothing to worry about.”

“Says the one person who gets to stay on the ship,” Koki grumbled.

“Perks of being the captain,” Tsuyoshi replied.

Koichi rolled his eyes. “And a big scaredy-cat.”

“I heard that, Kochan. You should be nice to me. I control your oxygen.”

“Tsuyoshi-sempai, you’re the best singer in all of JE,” Jin stated proudly.

Tsuyoshi chuckled. “Kissing my ass will get you nowhere, young one.”

“Don’t worry,” Koichi said with a warning undertone, presumably directed at Tsuyoshi. “We all have plenty of oxygen. Let’s go out there and have fun, ne?”

Junno and Jin bounced with excitement, Kame and Ueda looked unimpressed, and Maru glanced concernedly at Koki, who was very pale and visibly shaking. He wanted to ask if Koki was okay without attracting the attention of everyone else, but before he could think of a code that only he and Koki would understand, Koki caught his eye and bit his lip nervously. Maru patted him on the arm comfortingly, lingering just long enough to imply that he would stay close. Koki nodded and faced the hatch, gathering all of his courage and standing tall.

Maru had never been prouder of his friend. As Koichi gave Tsuyoshi the go-ahead to lift the hatch, Maru tightened his grip on Koki’s arm and together they watched the moon’s grey surface appear before their eyes.

“It looks… sad,” said Jin slowly, clearly expecting something more bright and exciting.

“Come on!” Koichi said encouragingly. “Don’t make me push you out.”

Predictably, Kame took the leap first, closely followed by Jin. “It’s so weird having my feet touch the ground again,” Kame said in awe.

“Yeah,” Jin said distractedly as he spun around in circles trying to see everything at once. “Look! It’s Earth!”

“I wanna see!” Junno tumbled out of the ship, executing a perfect front flip with a double twist. He waded over to where Jin was standing and matched his grin. “Oh, it’s beautiful. Our beautiful, beautiful world.”

Ueda looked over his shoulder at Koki and Maru, motioning for them to go next. Maru started to shake his head, but Koki nodded firmly and headed for the drop-off, indirectly dragging Maru with him. “Koki, I -”

“It’s okay,” Koki hissed, taking a deep breath before squinting his eyes closed and plunging outward. Maru watched him fall gracefully to the ground and open his eyes to look around. “‘I’m walking on the _moon_ ,” he said to no one in particular, sounding as if he had just realized it himself. He glanced up at Maru, and Maru could swear he saw Koki wink as he called out, “What, are you scared? Get your ass down here.”

“I’m on it,” Ueda said before Maru could respond. The next thing he knew, Ueda’s arm was around Maru’s waist and they were both falling, turning over and over at a speed that felt like someone was playing this scene in slow motion. Finally their feet hit the ground, more softly than Maru had expected, and they bounced back up with enough momentum to make it look like they were skipping as Ueda dragged him towards the others.

Kame, Jin, Junno, Koki, Ueda, and Maru all stood in a row, staring off to the side where a good portion of the earth was visible. “This is…” Kame began.

“… Amazing,” Maru breathed.

Five heads nodded. Jin turned back towards the ship. “Koichi-sempai, are you com- Hey!” He placed his hands on his hips indignantly. “How come you can talk to Tsuyoshi-sempai without us hearing what you’re saying?”

Koichi floated out behind them, flipping a switch on his belt. “Captain’s privilege. But if you must know, I was berating him for not joining us out here. Three years we’ve owned this ship and he has yet to step outside of it, at least not on Earth.”

Tsuyoshi’s voice did not sound amused. “Maybe I should start telling them _your_ dirty little secrets.”

“Lover’s quarrel,” Jin whispered, causing the other five to snicker.

Koichi chuckled. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to go exploring? This PV will be boring if all you do is stare out at the Earth.”

“What do you want us to do?” asked Kame. “We need some sort of direction.” He looked lost without a proper video set and choreographers.

“Do whatever you want,” said Koichi, shrugging. “As long as Tsuyo can see all of you, you’re fine. He’ll let you know if you’re getting close to the end of his range.”

Koichi stepped back as the others stared at each other, waiting for someone to take the lead. Inconspicuously flipping his switch again, he turned around so that none of them would see his face and let out the laughter he’d been holding. “This is too easy, Tsuyo.”

“I agree,” Tsuyoshi replied. “We should have done this a long time ago.”

The KAT-TUN members began to split up into pairs and disappeared from Koichi’s direct sight. “Keep an eye on them,” he reminded his partner. “Johnny-sama will have our asses if we lose one of them on the moon.”

“I got all six of ’em right here on the monitor,” said Tsuyoshi. “Don’t worry so damn much. You sound like my mother.”

Koichi snorted. “Please. My voice is not that nasal.”

“You’re just bitter because she doesn’t like you.”

“Well, if you would just _tell_ her that we are -”

“I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD,” Jin’s voice rang through the speakers in loud, broken English. “SHINING, SHIMMERING, SPLENDID.”

Maru’s unmistakable laughter immediately followed.

“Shut the fuck up, Akanishi,” snapped Kame.

“Tell me, Kazu-hime,” Jin said in an excited tone. “Now when did you last let your heart decide?”

Koichi tried to hold back his laughter as Junno, Ueda, and Koki were obviously failing to do the same.

“I CAN OPEN YOUR EYES. TAKE YOU WONDER BY WONDER -”

“I swear to God, I will fucking kill you -”

“OVER, SIDEWAYS, AND UNDER ON A MAGIC CARPET RIDE!”

“What is this song _about_?” Koki asked incredulously, recalling the few English phrases he knew from dirty rap songs.

“If you think that’s funny,” Tsuyoshi said privately to Koichi, “you should see how Jin is _dancing_.”

“In a way that would make me proud, I’m sure,” Koichi replied with a smirk, humming along with the familiar tune as Jin sang the entire chorus.

“… NOW I’M IN A WHOLE NEW WORLD WITH YOU,” Jin finished dramatically, dragging the last note in a wild melodic range of vibrato, harmony provided by Tsuyoshi.

Maru, Koki, Junno, and Ueda cheered; Koichi could almost _hear_ Kame gritting his teeth. Shaking his head, Koichi hoisted himself back on the ship and hopped through the series of air-tight chambers until he could remove his space helmet. He stepped out of his suit and joined his partner in the control room, plopping down into Tsuyoshi’s lap to watch their kouhais traipse around the moon until they grew tired, a series of cameras recording their every move.

This really was too easy.

~*~*~*~

“I’m telling you, Pi, it was fucking awesome. Like, better than sex.” Jin spoke loudly into his cell phone, swinging his hands animatedly with every word. “In fact, my new goal in life is to have sex on the moon. Too bad I’m up here with a bunch of guys.”

Ueda snorted and Koki rolled his eyes. “How the hell does his cell work up here anyway?” Ueda asked the room as a whole.

Jin covered the mouthpiece and hissed, “DoCoMo works _anywhere_ , Tatchan. They probably have a damn satellite on the moon.”

“When did you get so smart?” Kame asked skeptically.

“I’ve done enough of their commercials,” Jin replied nonchalantly. “And maybe I’ve just been making you think I was stupid so that I didn’t make you cry with my supreme intellect.” He winked and returned to his call. “Yeah, I’m back. So Ryo said what?.. SHUT UP THAT IS SO NOT WHAT HAPPENED… Okay, listen. LISTEN TO ME, YAMAPI… You’re not listening… Fine, believe what you want… Tell Ryo-chan I said ‘hi, douchebag’… He said WHAT? Let me talk to his punk ass…”

“Please tell me there’s something else to do,” Ueda whined. “Every time I’m in the same room as them, even if one of them is on the phone, I can feel my brain cells slowly dying.”

“Maybe Koichi-sempai will let us go back outside,” Kame said hopefully.

“He said not to bother them until tomorrow morning,” Maru said, making a face. “I really don’t want to know.”

“You don’t think -” Koki began, sitting straight up and staring at everyone in turn.

“No way,” said Kame with more conviction in his voice than on his face. “They’re already like an old married couple. They don’t need to -”

“Do not finish that sentence, Kamenashi,” said Ueda warningly. “There are some things we just don’t need to know about our sempais.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, including Jin, who was in the midst of chewing out Ryo for whatever he had supposedly told Yamapi that did so not happen.

“I’m _bored_ ,” Koki moaned.

“I have an idea,” spoke up Junno. “Let’s write a song.”

Kame raised an eyebrow. “What, all of us?”

“Yeah, all of us,” Junno repeated. “It’ll be fun. The song can be about -”

“Growing up,” Maru interjected. “Facing your fears.” His eyes flicked briefly towards Koki.

“Moving on,” added Kame, not at all sideglancing at Jin.

“I’ll get my guitar,” offered Ueda.

“Pi, I have to go,” Jin said into the phone. “Important KAT-TUN business of which you are not a part because KAT-TUNY would sound weird. Ja ne.”

Junno smiled, his insides filling with pride. Things were finally starting to go as planned.

~*~*~*~

“Kochan, I really don’t think I can -”

Koichi steadied Tsuyoshi with both hands, leaning their space helmets together in an effort to calm down his partner. “Tsuyo, I’m right here. I’m going to be right here the whole time. You need to do this or you’re going to be scared forever.”

“I am not _scared_ ,” Tsuyoshi said indignantly. “It’s just not safe to go out there with nobody in the control room. “And what about my condition? If I have an attack, I could suck up all of the oxygen -”

“Stop using your disorder as a goddamn excuse for everything,” Koichi said firmly. “You know, I’m almost offended that you think I would purposely let you do something that might hurt you.”

Tsuyoshi smirked. “Your powers of manipulation have no effect on me, Kochan.”

“It got you in the suit, didn’t it?”

Frowning, Tsuyoshi folded his arms. “ _Fine_. But we’re only gone ten minutes and we stay right by the ship.”

“Twenty minutes and we go far enough to look at the Earth.” Koichi stared him down with a hard face that clearly said ‘and there is no changing my mind’.

Tsuyoshi sighed. “If it means that damn much to you -”

“It does.”

“Fine.” Tsuyoshi smacked the button on the wall that opened the hatch. “You win this time.”

Koichi grinned, bouncing happily. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

“Where have I heard _that_ before?” Tsuyoshi asked sarcastically, grabbing onto Koichi’s hand with a death grip. “By the way, if you let go of me, I will kill you.”

“I love you too,” Koichi said sweetly as he took a running leap out of the ship, pulling Tsuyoshi with him. Tsuyoshi’s high-pitched screams echoed in his ears as he made contact with the ground, smiling as he took in the sight and texture of the moon surrounding him.

The sounds of hitched breathing jerked him out of his blissful reverie, and he spun around as fast as he could and threw his arms around Tsuyoshi’s waist.

“Oh, so _this_ is why you wanted to bring me out here so bad,” Tsuyoshi said, nodding knowingly. “What about the kids?”

Koichi rolled his eyes. “Please. We’re old prudes compared to them.” He peered through their helmets and studied Tsuyoshi’s face. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” said Tsuyoshi slowly, taking a deep breath. “Yeah. Now show me the damn world already so I can go back to what I was doing.”

Grinning, Koichi led Tsuyoshi towards the front of the ship and stood still, enjoying the view for himself. Since it was nighttime in Japan, they could only see Europe and parts of western Asia. “Pick a country, any country,” Koichi said quietly, twirling his finger in circles. “Where do you want to go next?”

“I’m limited to Earth?” Tsuyoshi replied bemusedly. “Um… Italy.”

“Why Italy?”

“The women, of course.”

Koichi smacked Tsuyoshi on the shoulder, but it was halfhearted. He joined Tsuyoshi in comfortable silence as they continued to stare out at their home planet, Tsuyoshi’s arm around Koichi’s waist and Koichi’s head on Tsuyoshi’s shoulder.

“I think it’s been twenty minutes,” Koichi said a short while later.

“I’m sure it has.”

“Weren’t you doing something that I so rudely interrupted?”

Tsuyoshi tightened his hold on Koichi. “I’m doing it.”

Koichi felt his face grow warm as he mentally cursed the need for bubble-shaped helmets. “Ne, Tsuyo.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Johnny-sama has noticed that we’re all gone yet?”

~*~*~*~

“But can’t we just -”

“No,” Koichi said firmly.

Jin pouted spectacularly. “But -”

“No.”

“One more time!” Jin screeched quickly.

“No.”

“Koichi-sempai,” said Ueda evenly. “Do you really have all of the footage you need for an entire PV? I mean, we didn’t really do anything exciting yesterday, just looked around and half-assed some backflips.”

“See!” Jin yelled. “Tatchan wants to go back outside too.”

“We’re going home,” said Tsuyoshi decidedly. “Everyone get in your seats and buckle up.”

Maru and Koki raced for the very back seats while Jin sat next to Ueda and Kame and Junno settled in the front. Kame let his hair fall back over the head rest, smirking with sweet revenge, at least until he emitted a very unmanly squeak when Ueda grabbed a handful and yanked hard.

Maru chuckled and started to secure his harness. He wasn’t as worried about Koki this time around, since they would be taking off into space much like a regular airplane. However, a glance to the side showed a visibly terrified Koki, holding onto one of the straps so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

“Koki?” Maru whispered. “Are you okay?”

Koki glared at him as though this whole situation was completely Maru’s fault. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He seemed to be mulling words over in his head, at least until the engine revved up and his resolve shattered.

To say that Maru was surprised to suddenly have a lapful of Koki would be an understatement. He would have vocalized it, but Koki’s harsh hiss of “if you tell anyone about this, I will kill you” kept him quiet. Instead, he concentrated on securing the harness around them both, which wasn’t really as complicated as it should have been considering Koki was pretty much straddling his lap, clinging to his neck with both arms.

Maru wrapped his arms around Koki’s waist for lack of a better place, hugging him comfortingly as his whole body shook along with the ship as it began to take off. Koki’s forehead pressed into Maru’s shoulder, and Maru couldn’t tell whether he was sobbing or just breathing really hard, but he held him tightly nonetheless. “I’ve got you,” he whispered soothingly. “You’re okay.”

“Oh, shit,” said Koki suddenly, his voice almost nonexistent. “Yuichi, I have to go back to my seat. Now.”

“You can’t,” Maru said slowly, confused. “We’re in the middle of taking off. It’s not safe -”

“Fuck,” Koki hissed, his hands fisting Maru’s shirt. “I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” Maru blinked. He had absolutely no idea what was going – “ _Oh_ ,” he said in a voice that surprised himself, eyes widening as he felt Koki’s embarrassment hard against his thigh.

“I can’t control it,” Koki said quickly. “The ship is moving really fast, and we’re moving really fast, and -”

“It’s okay,” Maru breathed, leaning his head back and straining his eyes to look down at Koki. “Just roll with it.”

“Roll with it,” Koki repeated in a grumble. “Easy for you to say.”

Maru grabbed Koki by the hips, shifting him enough to prove that the rocky motions were affecting them both the same. Once he made contact, he had to bite his lip to keep from earning the attention of the other four.

“Shit, Yuichi,” Koki gasped softly, burying his face in Maru’s neck. “Why does this feel so good?”

“Do you want the physics answer or the obvious answer?” Maru lowered his hands and pulled Koki closer.

“The physics answer,” Koki replied, his voice starting to waver from the intense friction. “I don’t think I’m ready for the obvious one.”

“Inertia,” Maru sputtered. “Air pressure… something about a gravitational forcefield…” He trailed off and tilted his head, finding himself looking directly at Koki’s ear. “Oh, fuck it.”

Koki bit down on Maru’s neck when Maru’s lips met his ear; both struggled to keep their noises inaudible as they moved faster against each other, although neither would admit that it was mostly their own doing by this point. Koki’s whimpers rose in pitch until he tensed and exhaled sharply, yanking Maru towards him and sucking along his neck to push Maru over the edge as well.

Maru was by no means quiet. Koki felt a ringing in his ears after Maru had let loose with his howling moan, one which left no doubt in anyone’s mind (which probably included Koichi and Tsuyoshi in the control room) as to what was going on behind them. It seemed to take Maru a second to realize what he had just done, and when he did, his eyes popped open and he muttered, “Oh, shit.”

“Dammit, Yuichi,” Koki said loudly in his best aggravated voice. “Couldn’t you have waited until you were alone?”

“Oh, don’t act like you’re not lying on top of him,” Kame called out from the front.

Ueda chuckled. “Busted.”

Koki hung his head and felt his face flush; Maru patted his back and laughed.

~*~*~*~

“Come _on_!” Jin insisted, making a beeline for Maru once they had gotten the all-clear from Tsuyoshi. “Tell me what it feels like.”

“It feels like a damn orgasm, you perv,” Maru snapped, looking everywhere but the eyes of any of his bandmates.

“But you were so _loud_ -”

“Maybe he’s a screamer,” Kame suggested with a shrug. “I wouldn’t be surprised, what with the way he sings.”

“We are not having this conversation,” said Maru firmly.

“Why not?” Ueda challenged. “We all had to _hear_ it, after all.”

Maru was about to point out that that was not his fault, but then he realized on whom he would be placing the blame and decided against it. He also realized that said person was entirely not there. “Where’s Koki?”

“Probably being traumatized in your room,” said Kame nonchalantly, looking over Ueda’s shoulder and pointing at something on the paper in front of them. “Shouldn’t that be ‘we’ instead of ‘I’? It’s ‘our’ futures, not just mine.”

“That’s Jin’s line,” Ueda pointed out. “He wrote it like that.”

“Figures,” Kame grumbled.

“Ne, Kamenashi, if you have something to say, say it.” Jin abandoned his efforts on Maru to glare angrily at Kame.

Kame briefly regarded him with an odd look before exploding. “Fine. There’s more than just you in this group. The rest of us all wrote our lines in plural first-person. We are in this _together_ , dammit. The band is not called Akanishi Jin-sama and KT-TUN.”

“I know that,” said Jin darkly. “The line says, ‘I’m hoping for my future to be filled with love from all of you’. I didn’t feel that I had the authority to speak for everyone.”

Kame frowned and studied the paper more closely. “That’s what that says?”

“My handwriting is not that bad,” Ueda scoffed.

“Yeah, that’s what that says,” Jin reiterated. “And I’d appreciate if you didn’t change it. While your lives are filled with love now, mine is not, and therefore the statement only applies to me.”

“But I love you, Jin-chan,” Ueda cooed mockingly.

“You’re the only one,” Jin grumbled. “I’m going to lie down. Please don’t disturb me.”

Kame watched as Jin disappeared down the hallway. “Since when does he care how other people feel towards him?”

Maru shook his head. “Sometimes you’re just as bad as he is. It’s a wonder you two don’t get along fabulously and try to rule the world together.”

“They’d continue to butt heads over the throne,” pointed out Ueda. “Even though they both want the same thing, neither one can sit by and let the other take charge.”

Those words settled uncomfortably in Kame’s mind. “I think I’m going to lie down as well,” he excused himself.

“Don’t disturb Jin,” Ueda reminded him. “He should have more than five minutes of peace during which he’s not discontent because of you.”

“I-” Kame began, shaking his head and heading towards his room without another word.

It was then that Junno returned from the control room, gushing excitedly about how Tsuyoshi had let him “fly” the ship for a little while. After two straight minutes of babbling, he paused and looked around. “Where’s everyone?”

“Jin and Kame went to nap,” Ueda said distractedly, crossing out a kanji here and there on their song lyrics and adding another. “And Koki is doing whatever in his room.”

“Jin and Kame are napping _together_?” Junno repeated, astounded.

“Oh, shit,” said Maru, clapping his hand to his forehead. “Koki. I should go talk to him.” He left the room before anyone could influence him otherwise.

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Junno said with a sympathetic grin as he settled next to Ueda. “Are those our song lyrics? They look good.”

“Thanks.” Ueda clipped the paper to his leg so it wouldn’t float away as he lightly strummed his guitar. “What do you think: ballad, punk, or upbeat?”

“All,” replied Junno. “Our moods in the lyrics change throughout the song, so the tempo should as well.”

Ueda nodded. “I agree. Now we just need a title.”

“Do you think Koichi-sempai will want to use _this_ song for our PV?” Junno’s eyes widened as though he had just considered the possibility.

“Doubtful.” Ueda played a few test chords. “We won’t have it ready in time. I’m sure he either has one in mind for us to record as soon as we get back to Earth, or he’s just going to pull one of our other songs from the last album.”

“The one that Jin’s not on?”

Ueda’s head jerked at those words. “God, I hope not. I don’t think Koichi-sempai is that mean.”

~*~*~*~

Koki was staring out the window when Maru returned to their room, cautiously approaching the other. “I think we need to talk about… what just happened,” he said, his voice sounding much more confident than he actually felt.

Koki turned away and fixed Maru with an intimidating stare. “It’s your fault, Yuichi. It’s all your fault.”

“I didn’t hop into my own lap,” Maru pointed out, folding his arms.

“No, but you didn’t push me away, either.” Koki sighed and looked at the floor. “That kind of thing is not supposed to happen between… us. It’s just not.”

“Koki, you were scared -”

“Don’t make excuses for me,” Koki said heatedly. “I can make them just fine myself. Besides, there is no excuse for what happened. _None_. Maybe if I hadn’t become so goddamn dependent on you I wouldn’t have -”

“You are so not dependent on me,” Maru interrupted. “Everyone gets scared sometimes. That’s not the same thing as being dependent -”

“You are too nice to me!” Koki exclaimed. “I know that no matter what I say to you, you will listen and try everything in your power to make me feel better, even if it’s about you. I could stand here and tell you that I killed someone and you would be like, ‘Okay, Koki, calm down and I’ll help you hide the body’. _Nothing_ fazes you. I’ve seen you get fed up with the others, but apparently I can do no wrong in your eyes. This special treatment has made me think that I can get away with anything around you, and it’s gone too far.”

Maru cocked his head in thought, trying to absorb all of Koki’s words. “What are you talking about?”

“Just once,” said Koki slowly, “I would like to see you freak out about something I did. Get mad at me. Yell at me. Make fun of me. Do _something_ to draw the fucking line somewhere. Because _there is no line_.”

“You lost me,” Maru said honestly. “A line between what?”

Koki dropped his head into his hands. “I didn’t think you would let me stay on your lap. I’ve been testing you all week, trying to see how far you would go. Then… _that_ started happening, and dammit, I liked it. And everyone knows. Why aren’t you _furious_ with me? It’s your reputation too. I -”

“I liked it too, or did you forget?” Maru chuckled. “It’s because of me that everyone knows.”

“See?” Koki pointed an accusing finger in Maru’s face. “You are _laughing_ about it. You need to not be laughing about it, okay. You need to be pissed. You need to tell me, ‘No, Koki, I really didn’t like it and it was only because of the vibrations that I got off and it will never, ever, EVER happen again’ because fucking goddammit, I don’t want to know that you’re _okay_ with this and you’d probably also be okay with the fact that I’ve thought about nothing but kissing you since it happened for reasons I don’t even _understand_ except that it feels like the natural thing to do -”

“Koki,” Maru said strongly, making Koki stop mid-word. “I am not going to say that because it’s not true. And you’re right: I am okay with both of those things, particularly the latter. I love you, but I refuse to take this one step further with you resenting the idea like this. That is where _I_ draw the line.”

Koki stilled completely, eyes widening at Maru’s confession. “What did you say?”

Maru rolled his eyes. “Like you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t.”

One look at Koki’s face told Maru that he wasn’t lying. “Well, now you know.”

Koki visibly swallowed. “I- I don’t know how I feel about you -”

“Okay.”

“Will you stop interrupting me?” Koki fumed. “No wonder I can’t seem to put my thoughts together.” He inhaled sharply. “All I know is that after what happened, I have this overwhelming urge to kiss you. I am not _resenting_ it at all; I am just very, very confused and I’m hoping that my best friend will make it easier on me. Because unlike him, this is completely new to me and I haven’t had nearly as much time as he has to get used to the idea of us… together.”

Maru waited patiently.

“I’m done now,” Koki announced.

“I could make it easier on you,” said Maru, “but I have to know that you won’t push me away. The last thing I want to do is force anything on you -”

“Oh, my God,” Koki said suddenly. “How are we – I mean, if we do – where does it – who will be -”

“Who’s interrupting whom?” Maru braved a step closer to Koki; Koki appeared not to notice. “Let’s just take this one step at a time, okay? Now, do you want me to kiss you or not?”

Koki gulped and examined the wall to his left. He gave one short nod.

Maru’s face broke out into a grin as he waded his way over to Koki, placing a finger on his chin and slowly guiding it back to Maru. Koki looked at Maru with big eyes, breathing quickly, but before he could say or do anything – hell, before he could even _think_ – Maru closed the distance between them and brushed their lips together, and any doubt remaining in Koki’s mind went flying out of his ear.

When Koki and Maru didn’t show up for lunch _or_ dinner, none of the others were particularly worried.

~*~*~*~

Kame couldn’t sleep. Jin had been peacefully snoozing by the time Kame entered the room – or maybe not so peacefully, judging by the glistening wetness that surrounded his closed eyes. Kame wanted to wake him up and ask what was wrong, but he had a sinking suspicion he already knew.

“Kazuya…”

Here we go again, Kame thought. “Yeah.”

“Do you still love me?”

“What kind of question is that?” Kame responded automatically. “You were perfectly clear three years ago: I’m not allowed to love you anymore.”

Jin blinked open his eyes and wiped them dry, feeling no shame as to whether Kame noticed or not. “That doesn’t mean you don’t.”

Kame sighed. “What does it matter?”

“You’re so mean to me,” Jin said sleepily, “but only in front of the others. I thought we agreed -”

“No, Jin, _we_ didn’t agree on shit.” Kame clutched his blanket tighter and tried to keep his voice calm. “That was all you. You, who always gets what he wants.”

Jin sat up in his cot. “Is that what you think? Really?”

“Yes,” Kame seethed. “You wanted to break up, so we did. You wanted a vacation, so you got one -”

“I did not want a vacation!” Jin exclaimed haughtily. “Yes, I wanted to go to America, but I didn’t mean right then and there. We had just _debuted_ ; it would have been not only stupid but incredibly selfish for me to purposely take time for myself when the group needed me most.”

“There’s a first,” muttered Kame. “You worried about being selfish.”

“You should listen to yourself sometime,” said Jin. “ _You_ are the reason I got sent away. You and your goddamn mind games or whatever you’ve been trying to play with me since we debuted. If you weren’t so fucking popular with your doramas and your fanservice unit with Yamapi, I bet _you_ would have been the one to go.”

“You didn’t care anymore!” Kame screamed. “We debuted and you stopped caring. You stopped caring about me a long time ago, but I never thought you’d stop caring about KAT-TUN. About the fans. All you did was bitch and moan on the tour – our _first_ tour as a debuted group. You got lazy, Jin. Something had to be done.”

“And you being mean to me is what needed to be done? Excuse me, but I don’t understand.”

Kame sighed. “I am so tired of fighting with you.”

“As am I!” Now wide awake, Jin ripped apart the straps securing him down and floated towards Kame’s cot. “You’re the one who starts it! Everything was fine until we debuted, and then all of the sudden you’re making little comments about how it’s all gone to my head and all of these accusations that I think so highly of myself. If anything, I started thinking that way because of you! You turned everyone against me!”

“Everyone agreed with me that you were out of control,” Kame argued. “Do you even think before you speak sometimes? Every word out of your mouth back then was along the lines of ‘I am so hot’ or ‘I am so good at -blank-‘, where ‘blank’ was anything from dancing to wiping your goddamn lip. How is that supposed to make the rest of us feel? You are not better than us, Jin.”

“I know that,” Jin said quietly. “I wasn’t implying that I thought I was better than any of you. I was just so so excited that we were finally debuting and people liked us, and fuck you, I’m not going to apologize for being proud. You mean to tell me that you don’t think you’re the best actor? That Nakamaru doesn’t think he’s the best at beat-boxing? There’s no reason why we can’t all feel that way about ourselves. It’s called _confidence_. And now it’s gotten to the point where if I don’t think highly of myself, no one else will.”

“That’s not true,” Kame countered. “You have fans all over the _world_ , Jin. You should have seen the messageboards when it was announced that you were coming back. You don’t need me or anyone else in the business to tell you how popular you are.”

“Forgive me for sounding _selfish_ ,” Jin said sarcastically, “but I don’t give a damn what the fans think about me. I’m not going to change my attitude just to please them and sell more records. If they like me, that’s great. If they don’t, oh fucking well. I am so tired of everyone telling me ‘you need to do this’ and ‘you need to do that’ to be popular. I’ve grown out of that stage where I want everyone to like me. The only people who matter now are you, Tatchan, Nakamaru, Taguchi, and Koki. And Yamapi, but he doesn’t count.”

Kame felt a pang in his heart at Jin’s words. “You -”

“Shut up, Kamenashi, I’m not done.” Jin grabbed Kame by the shoulders and locked their eyes. “How dare you accuse me of not caring. I broke up with you because I knew I couldn’t be the boyfriend I wanted to be, the one that you deserve. I did those damn doramas because it would ’round out my image’, or however Johnny-sama put it. I swivel my hips and do things to my mouth because the girls think it’s sexy, and I like being sexy. Not to mention all the fanservice. At first it was fun, but by the time we debuted it had become like a chore. I continue to do it because I have to. I talk myself up because it’s the only way I can justify _lying_ to everyone.” He paused. “You know, for what it’s worth, I really am a damn good actor.”

Kame burst out laughing. “You act like you’re the only one doing that.”

“… Aren’t I?”

“Oh, Jin.” Kame reached up to embrace Jin, not caring if he would pull away, inhaling the indescribable scent that was just _Jin_ , one which he’d never thought he’d get close enough to smell again. “We all act like that on stage -”

“Not true!” Jin yelled against Kame’s shoulder, making no effort to escape from his hold. “You love to dance, Kazuya. You and your little smirks and winks -”

“It’s _acting_ , Jin,” Kame assured him. “Half of the time I feel like a piece of meat on display in a particularly perverse buffet. If I had my way, there’s only one person for whom I would ever want to dance like that.”

“Who is that?” Jin asked stupidly. “I know you’ve been close with Nakamaru lately, but I think we both know that he’s got his eyes set on someone else -”

Kame shook his head, chuckling into Jin’s hair. “If you don’t know, then you’re not worthy of it.”

“Worthy of what?” Jin raised his head up to grin at Kame. “Knowing? Or your slutty dancing?”

“Both. And my dancing is not slutty.”

“It would be for me.”

Kame tilted Jin’s face towards his until their foreheads touched. “Did you mean what you said about why you broke up with me?”

Jin hesitated. “At the time, my heart was so full of promises of fame and fortune and fans screaming my name. It started to get to my head, as you and everyone else have so helpfully pointed out, but it happened to you too. If we would have stayed together, who knows what would have happened. We could have been found out and lost everything. We could have had an even nastier breakup and ended the group permanently. It’s not just about you and me, you know. We have the others to think about too. Maybe when we’re old and grey, we can -”

“I don’t want your promises of forever,” Kame spat, suddenly narrowing his eyes. “I’m not stupid enough to believe you the second time.”

“Then what do you want?” Jin exploded. “Sex? If you want sex, I can give you sex. I would have given it to you already if I didn’t think you’d get attached again, because damn, it was pretty good while it lasted. As for how I feel, I’ve been trying to explain it to you for the past three years. How I feel about not only you, but also Tatchan, Nakamaru, Koki, and Taguchi. Kazuya…” Jin took a deep breath; his words were either going to upset Kame even more or get him punched. “… I can’t give my heart only to you when you share it with four other people.”

He braced himself, but Kame didn’t react immediately. In fact, he was quiet and still for awhile before the corners of his lips slowly turned up into a warm smile. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve ever said, Jin. Have you told anyone else that?”

Jin looked down embarrassedly. “No. I don’t want them to laugh at me.”

“I’m not laughing at you,” said Kame, smiling hard enough to make his eyes water; at least that’s what he told himself. “I think out of everyone, I would be the most likely to laugh at you, ne?”

Sitting back on his heels and bowing as low as he could, Jin didn’t bother trying to hide the wetness in his own eyes; he was done with hiding. “I’m sorry for the confusion that I have caused. Please forgive me, Kamenashi-san.”

“No need to be so formal,” Kame said with a chuckle and a good-natured smack to Jin’s head. “Especially when you’re straddling me.”

“But Kamenashi-san,” Jin said, a distinct change in his voice making Kame’s heart beat faster. “I have brought you such burden over the recent years. Please allow me to make it up to you.”

Kame quirked an eyebrow. “You just want to know what it feels like to come in zero gravity.”

“Oh, all right,” Jin said with a reluctant sigh, leaning back on his heels. “If you don’t want to, maybe I will just go to Tatchan -”

“I don’t think so.” Kame pulled Jin roughly back to him, almost bumping their noses together as he captured Jin’s lips in an equally as rough kiss. “I will share your heart with them,” he said breathlessly, “but I refuse to share your body.”

“Good,” said Jin with an evil smirk. “Because Tatchan said if I ever snuck into his bed again, he would make sure I only sang soprano for all eternity.”

“I didn’t need to know that,” said Kame. “However, I _do_ want to know about you and Yamapi -”

Jin rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s had a piece of the Pi. You mean to say you haven’t?”

“Um…” Kame averted his eyes, a small blush spreading across his cheeks.

“Hypocrite!” Jin declared with a hysterical laugh. “Tell me, did he call you ‘Shuji-kun’?”

Kame covered his face with his hands and tried to wriggle out of both Jin’s grasp and the straps that held him to the cot.

“He did!” Jin clapped his hands jovially.

“You lied!” Kame proclaimed suddenly. “You told everyone that you haven’t been anyone’s uke!”

“That is not a lie, Kazu-chan,” Jin said with a goofy grin. “I haven’t been. Not yours, not Pi’s, not anyone’s.” He leaned down and ghosted Kame’s ear with his thick lips. “But I will be, for you, if you want. To make it up to you.”

Kame’s eyes rolled back into his head as Jin made him forget why he had ever been upset with him in the first place.

~*~*~*~

“Tsuyo-chan,” Koichi sang as he entered the control room. “I have a present for – oh, my God, you are such a perv.”

Tsuyoshi didn’t look up from the surveillance corner, where he was consistently looking back and forth between two of the monitors with a hand shamelessly down the front of his pants. “You act like you haven’t known that for ten years.”

“Longer,” Koichi corrected, peering over Tsuyoshi’s shoulder to get a good look at what his partner was watching. “Koki and Maru? Right on. And is that Jin and Kame? Oh my… looks like our job here is done.”

“Let’s celebrate,” Tsuyoshi said in a low voice, yanking Koichi into his lap by his hair.

“ _Tsuyo_ ,” Koichi whined, struggling out of Tsuyoshi’s grip. “I do a lot of freaky shit for you, but watching our kouhais crosses the line.”

Tsuyoshi smirked and shuffled Koichi around so that they were facing each other. “So don’t watch.”

“Perv.” Koichi relieved Tsuyoshi of his previous duties and grinned satisfactorily when Tsuyoshi’s head fell back and he moaned loudly. “You’re not watching.”

“Do you always have to be such a pain in my ass?” Tsuyoshi asked, very obviously shoving down on Koichi’s shoulders.

“I’ll show you a pain in the ass,” Koichi muttered as he obediently settled between Tsuyoshi’s legs and obliged his partner’s silent request.

A hand fisted in Koichi’s hair, followed by an airy voice that murmured “ _Kochan_ ” over and over along with random syllables. As Koichi furthered his journey towards the backs of Tsuyoshi’s thighs, he stared up at Tsuyoshi’s eyes until they finally looked away from the monitors.

“Kochan,” he said again, more defined this time. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Koichi hoisted himself upwards, pushing Tsuyoshi back in the chair and attacking his neck. “Celebrating.”

“Ko -” Tsuyoshi tried to protest, although it came out as more of a strangled moan as Koichi made it harder and harder for Tsuyoshi to concentrate on anything other than him.

“Shh,” said Koichi comfortingly, except for that evil chuckle afterwards. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

~*~*~*~

“Itadakimasu!” Junno declared gleefully, popping the dinner pill into his mouth and pretending to chew.

Ueda shook his head and swallowed his own pill, glancing over the song lyrics once more.

“Tatchan?” Junno asked in a small voice. “Do you ever get the feeling that we’re the only two people on this spaceship who aren’t having sex?”

Wrinkling his nose, Ueda cast a sideglance in Junno’s general direction. “You know, it’s not a rhetorical question if you’re that specific.”

Junno rolled over onto his back and stretched in mid air, much like a cat would seek attention from its master. “How’s the song coming along?”

“It’s done, pretty much.” Ueda nodded to himself and held out the completed composition for Junno to preview. “I think it should be okay with just Jin and me playing guitars. We can record it that way, anyway, and if we feel that it needs production we can always add it.”

“‘After all is said and done, we will never forget’,” Junno quoted. “‘No matter what happens, we will live forever in our hearts, as it is now’. That’s beautiful, Tatchan.”

Ueda abruptly turned his head as he felt his face become hot. “Thanks. Your lines were good too.”

“It’s all good,” said Junno as he skimmed the music notes. “The rhythm is fitting, too. I can’t wait to record it.”

“The fans will hate it,” Ueda said with a somehow appropriate smile.

Junno leaned his head back to look upside-down at Ueda. “That’s okay. It’s more for us than them anyway. The only ones who need to understand it are the six of us.”

“Four of whom are indisposed at the moment.” Ueda frowned. “I sure hope Jin and Kame made up. I’m really tired of putting up with their shit, and goddammit, I don’t want the group to break up. As much as I would like to have my own band, I’ve kind of gotten used to you guys.”

“For what it’s worth, I’d miss you,” said Junno. “Especially if Jin and Kame get back together. Koki and Maru are obviously hooking up, and if you left, that would leave me by myself.”

Ueda laughed uneasily. “So what, then, you think we should start… something, just because the others are?”

Junno shook his head. “This may come as a shock to you, but I like girls.”

Now real laughter exploded from Ueda’s lungs. “Your jokes have gotten better, Taguchi.”

“Seriously!” Junno insisted with a giggle that implied otherwise. “Why does nobody believe me?”

“Because you’re in KAT-TUN,” Ueda said plainly. “After this long, it’s assumed that the gay would have rubbed off on you by now.”

“Now _that_ is a bad pun,” Junno pointed out.

Ueda clapped his hands to his face, his shoulders shaking with mirth. “Dirty!” he exclaimed. “Fine, whatever, you like girls. Taguchi, the day you date a girl is the day I make out with Gackt.”

Junno shoved Ueda playfully, and somehow they ended up wedged between the first and second row of seats where they had sat during the take-offs. Ueda felt the hard wall to his back and the firm body of Junno to his front; he dared to open his eyes, only to find himself face-to-face with Junno’s bright grin, brown eyes staring quixotically at him through a fringe of bangs.

“Taguchi…” Ueda trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words as Junno lifted one finger to run along Ueda’s jawline, ending at his chin and tilting his head up.

“You’re pretty like a girl,” Junno said seriously. “And you have soft hair like a girl.”

“I’m not a girl,” said Ueda, only slightly offended.

“I know,” said Junno needlessly. “But I like you anyway.”

Ueda surreptitiously licked his lips. “Does this mean I have to stop calling you Taguchi?”

Junno chuckled as he leaned in. “Nope.”

~*~*~*~

“This is worse than, like, waiting for you all to leave the dressing room so we can do it.”

Koki made a face, Maru and Ueda rolled their eyes, and Junno laughed; Kame hid his face the best he could. “I don’t think they wanted to know that, Jin.”

“That’s okay,” said Junno with a big smile, wrapping his arms tightly around Ueda. “We have a game where we try to go as far as possible before – mmrph mmrph mmrph…”

Ueda smiled proudly, only flinching slightly when Junno orally assaulted the inside of Ueda’s hand that had flown to cover his mouth.

Four heads turned towards Koki and Maru. “What?” Koki said innocently. “I don’t kiss and tell.”

“You just hump in front of us,” said Jin sarcastically. “I totally see the distinction.”

“Technically we were _behind_ you,” Maru pointed out. “And that was completely my fault.”

Koki nodded his agreement, earning a pinch in an uncomfortable place from Maru.

“Are we all here?” Koichi said briskly as he burst through the door, Tsuyoshi on his heels. “Good. Let’s get down to business.”

Koki leaned over to whisper in Maru’s ear. “If he says the word ‘orgy’, I’m out of here.”

“I’ll take your spot,” said Yamapi, wriggling his eyebrows at Maru.

“Pi?” Everyone turned towards the intruder. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Jin exclaimed, flailing just a little.

“Ryo bet me a thousand yen that you and Kame weren’t really back together,” Yamapi explained, helping himself to a seat that was empty due to Ueda sitting in Junno’s lap. “So even if you’re not, just lie for me and I’ll buy you something pretty. Or blow you.”

Kame glared darkly at Yamapi as he slipped an arm possessively around Jin’s shoulders. “I think you have your answer, Yamashita.”

“Pi go bye-bye!” Jin squealed in English. “Official KAT-TUN business of which you are not a part because -.”

“Because KAT-TUNY would sound weird,” Yamapi finished with him, rolling his eyes. “You know, for the record, I don’t think KAT-TUNY sounds weird at all.”

He and Jin did their super awesome best friends handshake before Yamapi disappeared through the door through which he had come, screaming, “I TOLD YOU SO, RYO-CHAN! AKAME IS BACK!” as he ran down the hall.

“I really hate that nickname,” Kame muttered.

“Can we begin now?” asked Tsuyoshi snarkily. “I have shit to do.”

Six faces looked at him in rapt attention as Koichi popped a DVD into the player. “All right, kouhais. Tsuyo and I spent all weekend putting this together -”

“Well, not _all_ weekend,” Tsuyoshi interrupted. “We might have gotten sidetracked on the more interesting parts.” He frowned at Koichi’s angry look. “What? _They_ were oversharing.”

“The editing was a bitch,” Koichi finished. “But I wanted you all to see it before we took it to Johnny-sama to release officially. Also because we need your approval for legal reasons since… um… some of this might have been obtained without your knowledge.”

Koki’s jaw dropped. “What the -”

“Let’s just watch it,” said Maru quickly, placing a calming hand on Koki’s shoulder.

“Just remember that you were on _our_ ship,” said Tsuyoshi, “and technically, there are no rules in outer space.”

“He has a point,” said Jin, who was clearly up to date on his legal study.

As Koichi pushed play and the video began, the KAT-TUN members were pleasantly distracted by the familiar song. “‘Peacefuldays’?” Kame said, nodding in thought. “Interesting choice.”

The opening of the PV had all six of them lounged around the spaceship, pretty much being lazy on the way to the moon. From there it flashed to different scenes on their trip: playing Memory with Tsuyoshi, writing the song together, laughing at something that looked insignificant but was really Jin and Ueda teasing Maru about the take-off from the moon; by the time the first chorus rolled around, they were jumping out of the ship in accordance with their KAT-TUN letter and the six of them stood in order in front of a bright, blue world.

The second verse was completely voiced over, much like Koichi and Tsuyoshi had done to their own videos a few years back. Each KAT-TUN member had a line or so, most likely taken completely out of context from their one-on-ones with Koichi or random comments made anytime throughout the course of the trip.

“Every time I start to think about going solo,” video-Kame said thoughtfully, his gaze fixed on something off-screen that was probably Koichi, “I look at those guys and realize that it wouldn’t be the same without them.”

Koki’s face burned hot as he heard his voice speak the words he had spoken to Maru in what he had thought was the privacy of their room, thankfully with a different video clip of him backflip-racing across the ship with Junno. “We started this together, we deal with it together. That’s all there is to it.”

Maru laughed as he recalled the instance of his statement. “There is no halfway. It’s all or nothing.”

Video-Junno faced the camera directly, smiling shyly. “They are my best friends on Earth, and now the moon. I hope we are a group forever.”

Ueda chuckled softly, nodding along with the Ueda on the screen. “As much as I would like to have my own band, I’ve kind of gotten used to you guys.”

“I am so glad to be home,” said video-Jin, who looked to anyone else like he was tired, but everyone in attendance knew that he had just finished bawling his eyes out. “Not the moon, mind you, but back with my best friends. It’s where I’m supposed to be.”

More moon-frockling and snippets of playful pushes and shoves showed on the screen for the second chorus, followed by brief interactions: Junno and Ueda looking out the window, Maru fastening the safety harness on a sleeping Koki, Ueda grabbing Maru before jumping out of the ship, Kame running into Ueda and Junno, and… Kame and Jin gripping each other’s hand as the spaceship launched initially, both looking terrified.

“Take that part out,” Jin demanded.

“I like it,” said Kame.

Jin snapped his head to look at Kame. “But Kazu-”

Kame met his eyes. “It stays.”

The rest of the video was Jin attempting to _ero ero_ dance on the moon, Maru beat-boxing over the intercom, Junno “flying” the ship, and finally the return home, where all six of them were so accustomed to a substantial lack of gravity that they tripped down the stairs and ended up in a giant pile of limbs on the ground next to the ship. Jin, who was unluckily enough under everyone else, moaned “itai” just before the song ended and it flashed back to KAT-TUN on the moon, standing before the Earth, a brightly colored letter affixed to their backs courtesy of Photoshop.

As they faded to black, Maru’s voice sounded. “We should all be proud, you know, because if it wasn’t for all of us as a unit, none of us would be as successful as we are. I’d like to think that we all did it together.”

The eight men sat in silence until –

“I approve,” said Ueda firmly.

“Me too,” said Maru, followed by Koki, Junno, and Kame.

Everyone stared at Jin. “Oh, okay. I approve too.”

Koichi hid a smile. “Good. Now get the hell out of here and enjoy the rest of your time off.”

~*~*~*~

_One month earlier…_

“Koichi-sempai?” a small voice politely requested, knocking softly on Koichi’s dressing room door.

Looking over the glasses he wore when there were no cameras, Koichi smiled at his visitor and waved him in.

“I know you’re busy, but -”

“Nonsense,” said Koichi dismissively. “I always have time for one of my favorite kouhais. What’s up?”

The boy sighed. “It’s our group. I think we’re going to break up.”

Koichi frowned. “That cannot happen. Is there anything I can do?”

A pause. “Fix us?”

Running a hand through his hair, Koichi nodded to himself once before returning his attention to his guest. “Leave it to me.”

Tsuyoshi poked his head out from where he was doing his hair. “You did the right thing coming to us.”

Smiling brightly and feeling lighter than when he had arrived, Junno bowed deeply and went back to pretending.


End file.
